Masters Of Claws
by Purpleground
Summary: Thieves had broken into Jade Palace and stole one of the most powerful relics. As for the return of the item, they... famously known as the Wu Sisters, left their demand on the warriors, while keeping their intention untold.
1. New Intro

Start of with the usual... I don't own Kungfu Panda, it belongs to Dreamwork. Thanks to them such an outstanding, not to say visually attractive animation was made. So, yeah, that's all and this is my second Kung fu Panda story.

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***********Chapter 1: New Intro********

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Morning day light covered the Valley of Peace in brightness. The early gong had been sounded, and the streets are getting as busy as always. Mr. Ping's business is getting well every now and then. People come and go at his small little shop, but the tables were never enough to keep up with the customers' increasing number.

"Po." shouted Mr. Ping."You got a visitor!"

"Okay," mumbled the panda from up stair. "In a minute!"

It's been 2 months since he left the Jade Palace to help his dad in his business. Once in a week, Shifu and the furious five would pay them a visit. Normally, Shifu would play a game of Chinese Chess with his dad, and even though Mr. Ping is just a noodle folk, his tactics are still incredible; Tigress would drag Po into a sparring match, and for that, the folks would gather around to watch them battle each other.

Monkey and Mantis would joke about what's happening in the palace. Once, they told him that Shifu had added a new training course for them, calling it "Shooting Dragons". He actually got the idea from Po's bouncing attack. The trainers will be locked inside a room, and forced to dodge a series of giant rubber balls that bounces dangerously. Crane and Viper would urge Po to tell them the "secret ingredients", and it was fun hitting around the bushes as he continued to drag the topic week after week.

His room had been cramped with bowls as always. The sunlight shot across his room, on the walls and onto the posters of the furious five, which had been hanging there for years. Finding himself waking up on the ground instead of his bed again, he cursed for his kung fu dream. Don't know why, they had been repeating quite a lot lately. He lay on the wooden floor for a few minutes, before doing a successful flip to get on his feet.

"Oops, I did it again," sung the panda to himself as he danced along.

Then he jumped next to his window where he put his action figures.

"Monkey, crane, mantis, viper, tigress." Before he mimic the roar of a tiger, he peek outside his window to makes sure nobody is looking. Then "Roar!" as he imitates a tiger that is ready to strike. Finally he came to the last one, which he just acquired it few days ago. Doubtless, it still has the "new" sense of smell.

"Hello handsome." Giving his own toy replica a slight pat at the head.

"Po!" called Ping from downstairs, snapping the panda back. He quickly headed to the stairs, but then took a few steps backward; grabbed the Dragon Scroll on the table, and slide it open.

"Yeah, baby." muttered him as he checked his own reflection on the golden surface, giving himself a brush on his head. Then he hurried down the stairs, only to find his dad busy packing a stack of noodle bowls.

"Morning dad."

Mr. Ping said nothing, but gave Po a winkle in the eyes, signaling there is someone there to meet him. Looking at the direction where his dad pointed, he saw Master Tigress, standing in front of the store, arm folded. Most of the folks behind her seemed to be whispering among themselves, eyes passing back and forth between her and the panda.

"Owh," Po whispered to Mr. Ping, bending down slightly. "What is she doing here?"

"Who knows," replied Mr. Ping, soft enough not to be heard by the tiger. "Are you hiding something?" and gave him a "your girlfriend?" look, which makes Po frowned.

"Dad," said Po. "There is nothing really going on between me and her. No, uh-uh, not yet… I mean urmmm… not for now, and not… You know…"

Mr. Ping smiled and continued his work, signaling him again to go attend his visitor soon. The panda stood there for few seconds, took a deep breath and looked at Tigress, who greets him with a wave of the hand.

"Ssssssso," dragged Po when he approached Tigress, resting one of his hands on a table, while another on his waist. "What brings you here?"

"2 bowl of noodles," replied the tiger with a slight smile. "Take away."

Po widened his eye, surprised as she finished. Tigress normally chooses tea over noodles at his shop, saying that noodles are too heavy for her... Now she is going for two?

"Whaa….. I mean of course… Sure, 2 bowl of noodles, take away," said him.

"Don't choke, it's not for me," added her after seeing his reaction.

"Oooooooooooh…. Riiiiiight." Before he went to inform his dad about the orders, he turned at Tigress again. "…. Urmmm… Is that it?"

"No."

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*************END OF CHAPTER*********

Thanks for giving it a try. Hope you enjoyed the new opening, any comment about the way it's presented? Well, I tried.


	2. New Enemy

Thanks for the reviews guys. I appreciate it.

**Chapter 2****: New Enemy**

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**"How's thing at the palace?"

Po and Tigress walked along the busy street of China. People around them started to whisper as the two walked by; scanning them from one to another.

"Some thieves had broken into the Jade Palace 3 days ago," replied Tigress, "they stole something, but it wasn't discovered until now."

"Oh yeah, I heard some break in at the Jade Palace. Tried to find some free time to go there check things out. But you know… Dad been busy and I err…. Yeah, that sort of things."

The two now reached the foot of the mountain where Jade Palace stood. Po looked all the way up the stairs and gave a sigh. Tigress stood there watching him for a few moments before continued on the stairs.

"So," Po tried to continue, but starting to breath harder and harder after climbing several steps, "what did they steal?"

"A vase I think, Shifu haven't speaks much about it yet."

Level of stamina started to show their gap as the two continued to climb the stairs. Po is now gasping for air, his legs are getting tired and they shook when he walks. Tigress on the other hand didn't even seem to be tired. She stopped when the panda collapsed onto the floor.

"*Huh*… stairs," mumbled panda, "never gets old."

"So why would a Dragon Warrior went back to the old noodle-making?" asked Tigress, examining the panda for a moment before scanning the surrounding.

"Dad need some help in the kitchen," replied him, "and frankly, you can just call me Master Po, or just Po since I haven't been in training for weeks."

Tigress waited patiently for her turn to speak, although she planned to tease him of running away from his Dragon Warrior's honor, but it was melted away soon. She knew he had been trying to get some peace and quiet ever since defeating Tai Lung. It seems that he does not have the will to keep on going, although he had previously done so; he wasn't given any choice back then. Clearly Shifu seen this in him, still he can't force his student. Reluctantly, Shifu let him go, hoping that Po one day will return.

"Okay," she sighed finally after a long pause, "but I think you will still need to get back to shape for what's coming, Po."

The last word that came out was rather friendly than teasing, but the panda doesn't catch it.

"Whaa?... What's coming?"

"You will see."

The two of them reached the Jade Palace at midday, with a lot of stops. However, Tigress didn't complaint much, because she already knew that's going to happen. When entering the front yard of Jade Palace, memory started to flash back; the way they sparred together, chased around by monkey when he discovered Po had ate his biscuits; then by Crane for accidentally sit on his hat, completely flatten it. Imaginable laughter still fills the air. Nothing much has changed since he left. However, something caught Po's attention on his way there. Scratch marks can be seen randomly across the ground as he passes the yard.

"You guys been training a lot using sharp things lately?" asked Po, remembering that Tigress got claws; but frankly, he never saw her applied on combat. Finally, it struck him when he saw the entrance to Hall's of Heroes was badly tore apart. Claw marks were everywhere, and beyond the door he saw Zeng busy cleaning what is left of the hall way. The Chinese goose greeted Po when he saw him, but then continued his work without saying anything.

Everything is in a mess, the weapons are sticking everywhere from the floor to the ceiling; some of the pillars were broken, and part of the ceiling collapsed. The sunlight shot across the room, creating an atmosphere that makes him felt like being in an old ruin. A huge crack hole was in the middle of the room, with the wooden floor all torn up; and all the relics were now scattered everywhere across the room. The panda stood there jaw dropped, turning at Tigress.

"We engaged them in a fight," continued Tigress, "but we merely won since they just ran away after getting what they want."

"So," said the panda, "what does the thieves looks like?"  
"Cats and wolves," said a familiar voice, who soon turned out to be Master Shifu, standing at the entrance with his hands behind his back.

"Master Shifu." called the Panda and the two of them exchanged a respectful bow.

The other furious four stood behind him. Smiles are fixed on their faces, but they kept quiet for now.

"They are the Wu Sisters," continued Shifu as he walked into the hall, followed by the others, "they are known for their agility and fierce destruction in combat."

"Yeah, I heard of it, Masters of Claws," replied the panda, "anyway, what did they steal, a vase or something?" Panda looked at Tigress, but she didn't say anything.

"Actually," replied Shifu, "they call it the Sphere of Destruction." Po's eyes widened.

"Really," said Po, "it was in here all the time, why didn't I notice it?"

"Guess you don't really know," said Shifu with a smile, "appearance can be deceiving." The panda thought for a while, giving the furious five a look from one to another.

"A vase?" asked Po finally with a confused look, "if it's a vase, how come it's called the "sphere"?"

"Oogway had been hiding its true form as a normal vase for years," sighed Shifu, "guess that fact is now part of a history."

"So what now Master?" asked Viper.

"It can't be more obvious, you will have to get it back before the Wu Sisters try anything sinister."

"So we bang them head on?" asked panda.

"I think not…." said Shifu calmly, walking himself over the rubbles.

"From what I remembered, the Wu Sister did demand something for exchange."

"What? But master, they stole the sphere and now we need to fulfill their demand? That is ridiculous."

"No, Tigress. If we are facing a true villain, the demand would have been much unspeakable. Right now, it actually interested me."

"Whaaa? I don't get it," said Po, "what do they want?"

Shifu stared at the rubbles, recalling every phrase he had heard. Then, he turned to them.

"Find and bring back our outcast, and then we might consider return it back."

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**END OF CHAPTER **


	3. New Game

**Chapter 3: The New Game**

In the hall where Shifu used to meditate, sit the six in a line, facing their master. It was night time, and the light provided by the candles was pretty dim. They had been sitting there since after dinner. While Master Shifu was busy reading an old script regarding the Sphere, the five decided to spend the time meditating.

Po however, had been thinking quite a lot.He so wanted to ask a simple question, but scared of disturbing the silent. Without realizing, his fingers started to play among themselves, his eyes danced between the scroll and Shifu's face, his mouth made a few failures of opening, and his tongue was half hanging all the time.

Suddenly, Shifu peaked up at him, and their eyes caught each other for a split second before Po looked away.

"Curious, Po?" His sudden speaking disturbed the five meditating students.

"Yeah, very," Po said, "So urmmm ...What does the Sphere of Destruction does? blow things up?"

"If you wished to put it that way, its not really wrong," Shifu's eyes continued to fix on the scroll.

"But to be precise, Sphere of Destruction unleashes the elemental force contained within a person," added him again, getting an "owh" as a respond.

"You might had heard of, the natural elements that circles around us."

His students only stared blankly at him. Shifu now closes the scroll and put it aside.

"Fire, water, earth, thunder, light, and wind," continued him, "each person has their own unique element. And this sphere has the ability to turn that inner strength into a physical power."

"Cool!" said Po.

"It is… Indeed it is, Po," said Shifu, "it is nonetheless a visual and physical display of Qi."

Seeing Po so amazed by the sphere itself, Shifu sighed.

"Po, this relic is … As Oogway put it, a dangerous weapon. Anyone can use, but not everyone can control. Once you used it, the sphere may end up destroying you, permanently."

He gets another "owh" from the students.

"Oh… okay," said Po, "I will keep that in mind."

There was a short pause after that.

"Sooo," said Crane, looking from one to another, "regarding the Wu Sisters…. Any ideas?"

"Rumor has it that the 'Wu Sisters' are actually referring to three sisters, right?" asked Viper.

"Yeah," Po said, "they are ninjas! With shuriken and stuff…" and acted as he was throwing shuriken.

"Claws, don't forget claws."

"But as far as I know," said Shifu, "they only go for stealing luxurious item. They don't directly pick a fight unless they are somehow… Threatened."

* * *

Meanwhile, deep inside the Silent Woods, two distinctive crowds (cats and wolves) gathered in a clearance of the jungle. All of them were cloaked in black, standing in a way that a gap line was formed between the two crowds. At the center, stood three cats dressed in grey colored cloaks, and an alpha wolf.

"This is ridiculous! I hired you to help me get the sphere, and now you are holding back the bargain?!" the wolf shouted. As he paced back and forth in a line, his half plated armor reflected the lights of the moon from time to time.

"Calm, calm..." said one of the cat, "first of all, the Wu Sisters don't "help" people. Second, they had kept their side of the trade, but you don't." The wolf only snarled as a respond. He knew those cats' eyes were looking at him under the thick straw hats, but he still can't see their faces.

"Two weeks…. They given you," added another cat, which is no different than the first.

"And yet you failed to catch him," continued the third.

"Look here little missies, if you can give more time we-"

"Oh no no no, the Wu Sisters waited long enough," the first sibling interrupted as she shook her head, "and they have decided to left their same demand on the… so called "Greatest China Warriors"."

The wolf leader stayed quiet, but was obviously very impatient of it. When one of the Wu Sisters took out the sphere and show it to them, the wolves looked like they were given a shock.

"So," said the second sibling, "new rules apply."

"Who ever bring him back first, get the sphere."

"Does Mister ermmm… Claw understand what the sisters had said," teased one of the cats. The male didn't reply. He only shot a furious look at the siblings, before trailing off the scene; soon followed by other wolves.

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"And so the furious five, now six with the awesome Dragon Warrior included, they proudly accepted the task of getting the Sphere of Destruction, back from evil grasp of the Wu Sisters, and some wolves. The six hastened their tracks as they set out for their new journey, a new adventure that will test their might and wills. It is them who will save the Valley of Peace from the claws of the most feared. It is them who will face their TRUE… destiny."

"Nice morning story, betcha been telling kids stories about your awesome kung fu-ness," teased Mantis, standing on the head of Monkey as usual.

"Yeah, but it's fun expressing your own imagination, you know."

"But let's make a few adjustment for that," said Crane, "first, we don't know where the outcast actually is. Second, we are not very sure if the Wu Sisters plan to attack Valley of Peace."

"And we are doing this because Shifu wants us to," added Mantis before giving a laugh, where everyone stared at him, "what, I am telling the truth right?"

The sun was barely out from the thick morning mist yet, but the six of them had been walking for hours along the outskirt of the town. Busy streets are far from visibility, instead they are walled both sides by tall trees and bushes, with the forest canopy overshadowed them.

Before their search party, they had been asking around in the town for information regarding this outcast they are looking. Most know nothing about it, but still, some claimed that a cat looking figure was constantly spotted at the river curves of Silent Woods. Thus, taking it as their only choice, the gang decided to check the place out by themselves.

"Here we are, the first river curve," said Crane and took a breath of the fresh air, "and…. Another 3 more to go."

"No way you kidding?" said Po, "3 more to go?" The curve stretches far away, possibly reaching 2 miles long.

"Come on, the scenery is great here," Viper said. Indeed, with the birds singing and water stream flowing, the sound of insects cricketing, and green lands covering both side of the river banks, it is one of the most beautiful place they ever been; untouched and untamed by civilization. The air is pretty fresh here, not to say the feel of moisture with it.

"Man," Crane said, "this is simply a piece of art, especially when there is thick mist!"

"I'll say, better than your black and white painting at home," Mantis chuckled, and Monkey started laughing.

"It's called 'artistic drawing', read that one up."

"Break it up guys, we should start searching," said Tigress, "Crane, search from above, monkey mantis, check the other side of the river bank; viper with me, take the right… and Po…"

Well, normally when she plans she only considers the five of them… Not six. Po pointed himself as he was being left out, while Tigress looked at him blankly, simply can't put him anywhere else.

"Do what you like," finished Tigress and walked off, "you can follow monkey and mantis if you want, or us."

"What?" sounded a bit sore at the end.

The furious five spread out to their searching, leaving Po standing there alone.

"Okay fine, with the ladies," Po sighed, and chased after the girls.

* * *

Four hours later, the six finally finished searching the river curves, but had yet found their target. Now, the sun light blazed above them, heating the environment up as well as torturing them.

"Huh…. Huh….. huh…. Harrghh.." panda dropped to the ground, "take a 5 minutes break please."

The girls stopped their track, scanning the surrounding as they wait. The river is as calm as the wind, with the stream brushes lightly on the shores, sparkling as they reflect the sun light.

"Well this is weird," said Tigress, "we should have come across some kind of marks or traces by now."

"What if the information given is not correct?" said Viper, "what if the… whoever it is relocated himself, or herself?"

"I think it's possible too."

"I don't know," Tigress scratched her head, "if what you said is true, that only means we had wasted our time… searching for something that doesn't exist at here."

"One thing for sure," said panda as he continued to lie on the ground, "this river got a lot of fishies." For the first time, she finally noticed, the empty river where they came by the time was now crowed with fish. Even fishes jump above the water from time to time, and schools of fish continue to swim under the river bed. There were actually… countless of them.

"I'll say."

Suddenly, Crane came down fast, landing in front of them.

"Guys I saw some movement on the river bank way back, I think it's the one." Having said, Crane tried to signal monkey and mantis at the other side of the river.

"Okay then, let's go."

Indeed, there is someone there. However, it ran into the jungle before they can even get close enough. The six gave it a rough chase, but they weren't able to match with its speed, and soon found themselves lost sign of it. All of them stopped their tracks when there was no more sign of movements beyond them.

"Whatever it is, it's fast," Crane slowly landed himself on the ground.

"It's a cat alright," said Tigress, "an ocelot from the looks of it."

"Well," said Po, "we finally saw our target, but we let it get away… Hooowee."

**CHAPTER END**


	4. Catching the Catch

**Chapter 4: Catching the Catch**

Everyone was seating around the kitchen table, talking about their encounters with the cat. Shifu was listening, while Po prepares the dinner, wearing a flowery apron as always. The moon shines brightly outside the window. The air is breeze at the kitchen. Smell of appetites overwhelmed them. From time to time they would give a quick peak on Po's cooking before continuing their topic. They were exhausted from the searching, and were rather frustrated too. Waiting for a long time is one thing, but lost it again after that? It is nerve breaking.

After the students finished their story, Shifu scanned each of them, reading their expression and thoughts as he goes. As usual, some try not to make direct eye contact with him.

"Anything particular about this person you're chasing?" asked Shifu, turning a cup of hot tea placed in front of him.

"Yeah, errr…. ," Mantis thought for a while, "he ran very fast. Way fast!"

"He is an ocelot," added Crane, "brown fur and black spots, wearing long black pants by the time we saw him. No tops."

"Okay, an ocelot with black pants," Shifu crossed his fingers together, observing the steam coming from his tea, "anything else?" The students shook their head.

"Well then," started looking at them, "during your way out, I did come out with an assumption. Or guess if you prefer."

The five stared blankly at him, Po paused a while before continued stirring the soup. He gave it a taste later, nodding his head after that.

"From what I can think of," continued Shifu, "the cats are very agile ninjas, with formidable sneaking skills."

"They might threaten us to do their dirty job. But if we look from other way round, with their abilities, catching someone is not really a troublesome matter to deal with."

His students continued to keep quiet, fully focusing on him now.

"And as far as I know, Wu Sisters kept things for themselves, not to mention their own outcasts. You might have heard of some news regarding that. Dead bodies being found across the rivers, which most believes are belongs to those who dishonored them, or betrayed them."

The students exchange looks with each other while he gently took a sip from the tea.

"So you are saying?" asked Po from the back, now adding ingredients into the soup.

"They probably can't do it by themselves, so they turned to us," explained Shifu. His students' jaw dropped, but Shifu only cast an innocent look back, "then again, it's only a wild guess."

"But if that's true, it only means…" said Monkey, eyes gazing somewhere else.

"We have to best them in order to catch this cat?" Tigress stated, but Shifu shook his head.

"No, not necessary," Shifu corrected, "we can try to outsmart them," getting an  
"owh" from his students, "brute or skill not always win; brain does." He lightly ticked his head as he explained. The room fell silent after that. Po on the other hand, had already finished cooking.

"Orders Up!" said Po, quickly scooped seven bowls of hot soups, and carried them over to the table on his arms. He passed the bowls to each of them one by one. When he reached Tigress, he picked the one that contained steamed tofu.

"Your special order," said Po and put it in front of her. The feline looked at him quietly, and then to the tofu. It is nicely steamed, with some oyster source on top of it. Smell good too.

"Thanks," said Tigress politely. It suddenly remind her of the days when Po was still training with them. Of course, everyone would vote Po as the chef of the day, or in fact, everyday. They missed his cooking for months, and having the chance to enjoy it again was rather refreshing.

"In what way can we outsmart them?" asked Crane, "master."

"Well," Shifu leaned aside to let Po put his soup on the table, "you can start by guessing the possible time he is going to come out. Remember, he is still a man, and a man needs food." Shifu pointed the soup as he speaks. The gang was amazed by his example, and laughed they did.

* * *

On the next day, six of them were back on the river curves again. Same track, same trees, same ground, nothing had changed.

"Okay, according to the time we found the cat, it is around mid day," said Mantis.

"At the second river curve," Monkey added, shading himself from the sun light. He then noticed Crane's straw hat.

"Hey can borrow that?" Monkey playfully asked.

Crane gave him a disturbed look, "No."

"Since he will run away whenever he sees anyone," said Tigress, "I guess we will have to hide ourselves this time."

"Will do," said Po.

With that, they waited inside a pile of bushes near the river bank for their target to come out. Hours passed, and they had yet seen the cat. Soon, the sun started to blaze, and the heat began to get on their nerves.

"It's getting hot in here!" whispered Po impatiently, waving himself some air. Tigress only sighed as a respond. Mantis jumped down from Monkey's head a while ago, since the fur is catching the heat. Crane had been standing behind a tree for hours, he was becoming part of the nature soon; while Viper continued to daze at the sparkling river, endlessly.

"I don't think this is gonna work out," said Po again, brushing off his sweat, Tigress growled as it almost stained her, "will it?"

"SHhh.." hissed Tigress, "_if_ we are going to catch someone we need to be _patient _and _quiet_."

"Geeezz, we never waited someone for this long," Mantis stretched his arms, "twice!"

"Make that more than twice if we are going to fail again," added Monkey.

"Because we didn't make an appointment with him," cracked Crane. The boys started laughing.

Tigress frowned and rolled her eyes, "boys…"

They waited there for another hour. Then, their target finally emerged from nowhere, walking towards the river. To their disappointment, it was on the other side of the river. The ocelot gave the surrounding a scan before it crouched near the river, looking as if something is in the river, with his arm hanging half way.

"Well," asked Po impatiently.

"Is he catching fish?"

"I think so," said Po. They watched quietly as the cat strike his arm into the river for several time.

"Eh…. when did the river flooded with fish?" whispered Mantis.

"Guess you will need to pay a little more attention."

"Well?" asked Po again. Everyone looked at him, suddenly went blank. The cat now finally got himself a rather fat fish, and a smile can be seen on his face.

"Any plan?" asked Viper. Her friends only shook their head.

"With him on the other side of the river, what else can we do?" asked Tigress.

"Try flying," said Po, "that way can get there in no time."

"_Po, this is no time for illogical joke!_" snapped Tigress, merely a whisper. Po only pointed at Crane.

"No, seriously he can fly," said Po.

"Fine," said Tigress, admitting defeat, "head on. Crane, don't wait for us. On my count, 1…2 …."

"3, Go!"

The moment they leaped out of the bush, the cat noticed them. Without further delay, it quickly ran off. Crane flew swiftly across the river, but before he could reach him, the cat had already disappeared into the woods. Crane continued to chase it, and soon vanished from their view.

"Man, this is hard," said Po as he slowly dragged himself across the river. Behind him was Tigress, with Viper hooked around her neck; followed by monkey and mantis.

When they finally reached the other side of the river, Crane came flying out of the forest and landed before them. There was something that caught their very attention, something that makes Monkey and Mantis burst out with laughter.

"Well," asked Po while trying to contain his own laughter. The bird's straw hat, was actually filled with branches, including flowers too.

"Lost," Crane shook his head, and the branches shook along, "too much obstacles."

"Nice horns," teased Mantis, causing the bird to start plugging them out immediately. The six went to look for marks or traces inside the woods again, but only to find nothing. This time, they decided to venture even further into the woods, despite having no clue of where were they heading. Until one spot, where Po was slapped by a plank of wood that popped out of nowhere, they started to question their doing.

"What was that?" asked Po, massaging his arm. Suddenly, something smacked his butt from behind. Po turned back, only to find another plank of wood on the ground.

"Oookay," said Po, "creepy."

Soon they found out what actually makes them creeper. This jungle was actually full with traps, the deeper they went the more traps they get. Mantis was smacked by a block, trice; Viper was rammed by a rock, and crushed by a tree trunk. Crane decided to keep in the air, but was entangled by a series of traps, triggering more traps to spawn at the gang; Tigress had avoided or destroyed every trap, except the one that shoot sticky mucus at her; Monkey was the first one to be showered by needle fish bones, followed by Po. It got worst, a gigantic rock came rolling down the hills, chasing them as they screamed all the way across the forest. Finally, a gigantic wood blog coming from above rammed them out of the woods and into the river.

* * *

"What happened?!" shouted Shifu, rather surprised to see his students. They met at the entrance of the Jade Palace, where the rest of the students were standing at the stairs. Po was the first to catch his attention. First, he is relatively bigger; second, he was full of spikes, and if one not looked carefully, people would have mistaken him as a giant black and white porcupine.

"Urmmm….." dragged Po, twisting a needle that stuck around his chin, "the thrill of jungle tracking? It was AWESOMELY THRILLING all right," nodding as he speaks. Shifu then bend slightly to see the rest behind him. Tigress was covered in green mucus, with some of it drooled onto the floor; Crane's neck was tied with vines, with bloomed flowers all over his hat; Monkey was filled with fish bones too, with a small tree trunk tied around his back by green vine, which actually turned out to be Viper. Mantis…

"Where is mantis," asked Shifu.

"Over here," called the bug. Shifu tracked the source of the sound, only to find him stuck by the mucus at Tigress' forehead. His skin is as green as the mucus, and since the day is getting dark, he became camouflaged.

"Oh, you know, just hanging around," said him when Shifu jaw dropped.

* * *

After one day of recovery, the gang decided to go back. Their third try, also ended up losing the cat. However, this time they had corrected their hiding place. They were on the same side of the river with the cat, but the cat was way far off since it appeared on the third river curve, while they waited on the second.

Exhausted and frustrated, they trailed back to the Jade Palace once again

"Try again." This is the only reply they get from Shifu, with a supportive smile.

"Ya-ha-ha-ha," smacked Po in his face, then dragged it downward, "that was encouraging."

Based on Tigress's conclusion, the cat will only come out when there are fishes in the river, which is when the sun hit the highest and the shadows reach the shortest.

* * *

Their fourth try, was to split themselves up across all the curves, randomly locating themselves. But they still can't get themselves close enough to catch the cat before it escape. Annoyed and lost, the gang gathered under a tree for shading.

"THIS WHOLE area was WAY TOO DAMN BIG for US!" shouted Po as he continued to stomp the ground several times. Crane watches with amusement as he used his hat to wave himself beside a tree.

"We will have to think other way," said Tigress, watching Po head butting a tree.

"Hey I know," said Monkey, "what about a decoy."

Discussed and agreed, the gang decided to use something that can catch its attention from afar. Something big… something that can't be missed… something that can hardly be ignored, something that has no regrets on being the decoy… Their conclusion: a training dummy.

* * *

On the next day, the gang carried the kid's training dummy to the spot, with Shifu's surprised expression in their mind. After selecting a good location, the training dummy was left there, and they waited behind the trees.

An hour had passed, the fishes started swarming the river, although the sky was cloudy by that time, it still had the sign they were waiting for. As predicted, their target revealed itself soon. Obviously enough, the cat spotted the dummy far away, and slowly walked his way towards it. From the looks of it, the ocelot had already caught himself a fish.

"It's working…" said Po excitedly.

"_Quiet!_" whispered everyone else together.

"_On my mark,_" whispered Tigress as the target was getting nearer and nearer every second. The ocelot soon reached the dummy. He made a laugh as he sees the funny looking painting of the dummy's face. He playfully gave it a poke, causing it to swing back and forth lightly.

"NOW!"

Without warning, everyone charged out of the woods, and upon alerted, the cat make a run for it. Still, his legs were tied up by Viper, who had been hiding herself inside the nearby grasses. The cat made a clumsy fall to the ground, and Viper swiftly curled herself on his arms, tighten it.

"Let me go!" shouted the cat as he continued to struggle. Seeing nothing else to do, Po sat on it, causing Viper and the cat to yelp.

"Sorry, Viper" apologized him as Viper slowly released it, and crawled away.

"Aarrrghhh, get off me!" the cat slapped Po in the face several times with the fish he caught. Tigress soon catches it and pulled it away. It still moves, making the feline rather disgusted.

"We finally got you now, kitty," Po gave a sigh.

"Awww… Man, that's salty," added him again as he tasted his own lips.

**END OF CHAPTER**


	5. Getting Started

**CHAPTER 5

* * *

  
**

Inside the hall of meditation, the new prisoner stood there, facing whom he recognized as Master Shifu. Surrounding him were the master's own students, "The Furious Five", and "The Dragon Warrior". He felt threatened by their doing, and was aggressively defensive, trying his best to show no cooperation.

The students only quietly observe their master's conversation. They are exhausted. Getting the super active cat into the Valley was a tough job, but things changed when Mantis decided to use nerve point acupuncture for temporary disabling him; carrying him all the way up the stairs like a statue. Still, the moment they took out the needles, the cat went wild and exploded with anger. What can they do? They just catching someone. Shifu tried to explain what is happening, but the ocelot simply against everything. Luckily, the red panda was very patient with this fire cracker. Seeing no other way round, Shifu decided to calm him down first.

"Calm down, we mean you no harm," said Shifu, "although we actually kept you bounded," rubbing his chin.

"I AM AN OUTCAST," said the ocelot impatiently, "as an outcast I should never enter into that land AGAIN!" he pointed somewhere out of the room. Nope, that didn't work.

"You know what they did to those people right?! You know it!"

Shifu then thought for a while, scanning the angered cat from side to side. Other than brown fur full of spots, he is a bit taller than Tigress, and has the body shape that resembles Tai Lung, although skinner. Like the students described, he wear a long black pants, but this time with a dark purple, button-less shirt (looked like an unzipped jacket). Judging from his facial texture, this ocelot was about the same age as his students. The moment he looked him into the eyes, other than sensing fear as well as mixed anger, the cat had two horribly blackened eye lips.

Although he could already guess the reason, but the words still slipped him, "Doesn't had any good sleep lately?"

"Thanks to you and some wolves," replied the cat, "I have been staying awake for 4 days!" using his fingers to describe the numbers. Like Tigress, his emerald cat eyes glow in the shadow, as the lighting provided by the candles are low.

"Wolves?"

"Oh yeah," Po lifted his hand to signal Shifu, "we did come across some foot prints that weren't ours. It's in a pack too."

"So that explains," the red panda turned back to the cat, "how long had they been tracking you?"

Again, the cat didn't reply, he only stared at the ground. For once, Shifu noticed his temper swept away. He continued to observe him quietly. Eventually, he had read his mind.

"You are not really an outcast, do you?"

The ocelot raised his head, stared at him for a few moments, before dazing off at the candles.

"Instead, you are a runaway," added the red panda, causing his students to gasp. The cat continued to stay silent, trying to avoid the stares. There was a long pause later. Guess that didn't work out, but he did get something by his own though.

The master then gave a sigh, "Okay, I understand. You can go. We will get it back ourselves."

"What?" Tigress widened her eyes.

"But master, we don't even know where the Wu Sisters live," added Viper hastily.

"We wasted 5 days catching him, you gonna just let him go?" Po protested, "no way!"

"Silent!" Shifu raised his hand, "it is not our decision to make either."

The ocelot gave a puzzled look at him, but Shifu only responded with a smile.

"Sorry to trouble you," the master showed him the way out with a bow, "you may go now." Numbed and blank, the cat walked towards the exit, feeling the pressure building as he was stared by the six. He can sense the destructive auras circling around him, as if someone was screaming inside his head. All of a sudden, the guilt, the hate and the fear was flooding his feeling. Soon, he was defeated, by an awkward feeling.

"Okay fine, fine…. I will bring you there," although he can't stop thinking that he might regret it later.

"I don't know what you just did, but that's awesome," Po whispered to Shifu.

At first, the master ignored him, but when the cat wasn't looking, he quickly gave Po a 'V', "he is not really that bad."

* * *

*

True, like their master had said, the cat is not as bad as they portrayed. Instead, he is very friendly, and looked like someone who needs a break from something big. The ocelot later introduced himself as Zan during dinner, a sibling of 5 brothers with an irresponsible dad, who ran away after eight years of marriage. Sadly, he is the only person left alive in his family. He had little or no relative at all. When asked what's his fighting style is, he joked about being called as a 'weakling' by his tribe, because he was never taught how to fight. Eventually, he did develop some simple combos that can get him out of tight situation. Of course, with some fighting experience from… someone whom he ceased to mention.

"Did you set those traps in the jungle," asked Tigress, trying her luck. Intrigue, the ocelot nodded.

"Man," Mantis took a bite out of the dumpling, "those traps are damn accurate. Its like the jungle got its own hands and legs!"

"Really, you guys spawned some traps?" said the cat.

"Oh you bet we had," mumbled Crane quietly, Monkey nodded beside him.

"Well, seems like everyone is chasing me, I decided to draw my own line of protection. And these are the protection I can come out with."

"Did you get all those fish bones from your daily meals?"

The cat nodded.

"You know, they stink, really bad. Monkey and I have to wash for all day for that!"

The gang laughed, except Shifu and Zan.

"What about the green mucus?" asked Mantis in a playful manner. Tigress shot a look at the bug.

Just before Zan explains, the feline stopped him, "no thanks, I don't wanna know." But of course, although they had chatted a lot that night, there are still gap between them; and Zan seemed like to keep it that way. He stayed overnight inside a guest room, where Tigress, as usual, warned everyone to stay alert for just in case.

"I don't think he is that harmful. Besides, he hasn't slept for 4 days," said Po closely to his friends, "so he should be snoring right now."

"Okay then," Tigress folded her arms, "what about the Wu Sister's demand?"

"You really think we should give him to them?"

"No, but still we need to get the sphere back."

"So it's settled then," said Crane, "we have him lead us to the hideout. Trick them to show us the sphere-"

"And Bam!" Po punched his own hand, "we take the sphere. Right?"

"Right."

* * *

*

Early in the next morning, as Zan had promised, he led them to the cats' secret hideout. Shifu didn't follow, saying that he is too old for adventure; but Po joked about him secretly taking the dumplings on flavor experiments.

The gang traveled in the woods for hours, brushing away leaves and branches, jumping over cracks, walking across the rivers and up the cliffs.

When they reached a clearance, Po begged for a rest.

"It's not far ahead from here," Zan watched the panda lazily leaned on a tree, "continuing straight ahead will lead you to them." The cat pointed somewhere ahead, but the rest could only see trees and bushes. He seemed to be a little bit distracted by something though. From time to time, his ears would twitch. Maybe it's his habit to do so, but if they weren't mistaken, the cat seemed to be hearing something out of the environment.

"No," Tigress snapped, "you will be going with us." The ocelot frowned.

"Guys you don't understand, things are complex. But to be straight, I just don't want to let them see me," said Zan, "cuz they might kill me."

"Which kind of 'kill' are you referring at?" asked Crane playfully.

"Errrh… 'where the hell you been?!' that kind of kill."

"See? It's not that serious."

"Don't worry," Mantis interrupted, "you got a nice Dragon Warrior here with you. How's that for line of protection?" Mantis chuckled. Viper exchanged a look with Crane.

"Is that a compliment?" the panda looked puzzled, "cause I don't feel any better here."

Suddenly, Zan's ear flicked again. This time, they knew what he heard… _bird's call_.

"Oops," mumbled Zan.

"What?"

A large group of cloaked wolves suddenly leaped out of the forest. There were hundreds of them, swarming the scene like shadows within seconds, leaving no room for escape. The gang stood back to back, circling Zan at the middle as they faced themselves outward.

"You been hearing call signals?" asked Tigress after putting a little thought into it. The ocelot didn't look at her, "why don't you tell us?"

"I'm sorry, but do you expect me to remember all those calls signals after I left the tribe like, months? Yet the last one is obvious though."

The crowd soon came to a hold, keeping a lower stance and waited.

"Well well well," said the only feminine cat with a grey cloak covering her whole body, and a hat like Crane's, "look who's back." The gang can't make out her actual face yet, but obviously she got a pair of blue eyes, and striped grey fur.

"Excellent," came another one that looked exactly the same, clapping her hands softly behind them.

"Indeed," said the third one, which appeared on top of a tree. Doubtless, there are no differences between them, even their voices sounded the same.

"_Wu sisters?_" whispered Po over his shoulder, "as in triplet?"

"Yep," replied Zan.

Ignoring the two's chatter, Tigress loudly exclaimed, "and the sphere?"

"Calm down, its right here all along," the Wu Sister in front of them held the sphere high in the air. For the first time, Po sees it; a cloudy glass orb with some rune words curved in the middle. It sparkles gently under the sunlight, such a magnificent object to admire.

"Unfortunately," the cat retracted her hand, and Po's eyes followed the sphere, "there're someone else who want it too."

Having said, she gave them a hint by eye signals, followed by a grin.

"The wolves?" the gang whispered to each other, "you mean 'you'?"

"No no no, don't misunderstand the sisters," interrupted the second sibling behind them, "cats and wolves don't mix."

"No," a rather big alpha wolf stood out with a rough toned voice, "not anymore." Other than his size, his armor was the thing that distinguished him from the crowd, half plated silver, covering the upper body part and over one shoulder. His fur was as black as his cloth, but with a long, bushy tail that was white at its end. His weapon, which he had no intention to hide, was a giant shuriken, wielded loosely by one of his hand. He looked like a middle age man, and his presence made Zan uncomfortable. Is it his weapon, or his reason of participating? He couldn't tell.

"Okay," said Po, snapping him out of his gaze, "we can proceed with the exchange anytime now, or whatever you like to call it."

"Oh ho-ho," one of the sisters teased, "don't worry, we have our own way of doing it,"

"Huh?"

Suddenly, the Sphere of Destruction wielded by the cat started to glow, and to their amusement, her other hand burst in sparkling arc of lightning. The lightning danced and twirled dangerously as it started to form into a small concentrated globe.

"Hey, what the…"

With a swing of her arm, the lightning ball was thrown into the air above them. Before they know it, the orb exploded with brilliant light, shining and blinding everyone on the spot.

Po was immediately dazed before he managed to block the light.

"What was that?" The light faded away soon after explosion, but he still couldn't see anything except pure whiteness.

"I think that's the thunder element Shifu talked about," Tigress voice came from behind.

Soon, the image started blurring in as his eyes began to adjust.

When he was able to see again, the Wu Sisters were no long there. Instead, a sphere was left on the ground, which was soon getting the attention.

"Get the sphere!" ordered the armored wolf, and his minions obeyed, charging towards it with speed.

The moment Po fully recovered his sight, Tigress had already dashed off with Viper, kicking and punching their way through the crowds. That's weird, did the Wu Sisters just left the sphere to them? Wait.

"Where is Zan?!" Po snapped out from his dream, nervously looked around.

Crane stopped his track when he heard Po, while Monkey fanatically charged into the crowd with Mantis hang above his head. "Raaaaaaarghhh!!"

"They must have got him when we are blinded."

Scene in front of them started to mess up, with wolves flying everywhere.

"Alright, Master Crane, you and I go track him down," said Po.

* * *

*

Somewhere around the woods, Zan was being held by two captors, with both his arms behind him. The three siblings were standing in a line before him. There is something that makes him felt uneasy about their sapphire eyes, was it cold blooded history or a matter of reunion?

"Hello Zenny," greeted them simultaneously in a light tone.

Forcefully, the ocelot greeted back, "Yo," merely a whisper.

The sisters had no emotion at all, though he could sense some lightened feeling among them. They are expressionless, as cold as a sword edge could be, forged through many battles, which involved deaths and brutal struggles. Yes, that's what they are trained from. Since their youth they had been taught to kill, or to be killed. A disturbing childhood, one can say.

Normally, additional chatters are skipped, for they are not interested in listening. Only theirs they care.

"Let's get to the point. What do you want?" Be it friendship since youth that allowed him to speak like that, if not he would be killed just like any others.

"Oh nothing really," said one of them, "the Sisters thought, they would need a new leader for their new clan."

_Leader huh?_ Zan get the main point immediately, but he wasn't going to show much corporation, "oh yeah, I heard Claw talked about it earlier. So what makes you wanted to split up."

"Zenny, dear," called the first sibling in a charming tone, but it creeps him, "a new era was rising, and the Wu Sisters sensed the need to avoid the incoming wars. They planned to lead the cats to a safer zone, outside from the world could reach. So they could live undisturbed."

"Well, if you ask me, that sound pretty dumb. Isolating yourself and stuff." It was their friendship since youth, that allowed him to talk like that, if not he would be killed just like any others.

The females chuckled as a respond, "I guess it is."

There was a pause after that. Zan could feel the grip on his arms started loosening, but he continued to act along.

"So," said Zan in attempted to change the topic, "is that really the sphere you're giving them?"

The sisters exchanged a look at each other. Then one of them pulled out a white orb under her cloak. Turns out, it is the real Sphere of Destruction itself, "guess Zenny knew the Wu Sisters well."

"Hmmmm… You girls haven't changed a bit," teased Zan, "also with that talking style." The females chuckled again.

"Why can't the cats keep such a powerful relic for themselves?" replied one of the sisters, "the Sisters think it's rare and priceless."

Zan only frowned, "Jeeez… How many things you had stolen?"

Suddenly, Po came charging out of the forest, panting as usual. He was a bit shocked when he sees them, but still acted as if he knew.

"A-Ha!" he gave a deep breath before continuing, "found you!"

Seeing the cats being distracted by Po, Zan quickly forced himself free of the grips and delivered a powerful back thrust at one of his captors, sending him flying a few meters off. The second one intended to grab him, but Zan ducted from his grasp, and sent a punch at his stomach, causing him to groan.

"Sorry man," Zan grabbed his cloth and hurled him towards the Wu Sisters. They managed to dodge it, but Zan was quick on his move. He was already inches before them, specifically aimed at the one with the sphere.

"I will take that," whispered the male closely to her face before snatching the orb away.

Po was standing there watching him as he passed by, "nice."

The feline didn't stop at there, but continued to dash his way into the thick forest, signaling Po to follow as well.

"I don't wanna stand there if I were you."

* * *

*

Back at the forest clearance, Tigress and the rest were busy taking ownership of the sphere. Often, they got hold of it for only few seconds before losing it to the wolves again. No, they didn't lose it to the wolves, it is them who lost it. The sphere was awkwardly slippery. As if someone intentionally brushed a layer of soft powder over the surface, making it not only hard to handle, but also hard to grip.

"That guy!" pointed Tigress at a running wolf.

After marking her target, Viper quickly slithered under the crowds. She reached him within a few seconds, smacking him into the air before sending him twirling towards a tree. The sphere was left flying into the air, and Monkey catches it. As predicted, the crowd quickly concentrated on him. Claws and blades come swirling everywhere, but he was able to dodge them all.

"It's like the training course back home," said Tigress while evading a claw slash, "but this time the dummies are soft to punch at." She blocked a strike at its arm, swiftly elbowed at the stomach before hurling the attacker back at his teammate, knocking several out at once. Frankly, the wolves can be easily taken out, yet their scissor blades would make every single hit as fatal as a finisher.

"Try not to get cut," Mantis said.

"You wished."

After taking a strong stance, the bug shot himself at the crowd, bouncing himself quickly from one to another like a deflectable bullet. He is so small that his enemies have a hard time keep him locked. Nevertheless, this is his advantage, and he would strongly abuse it.

When Monkey performed a full house sweep, the sphere accidentally slipped out of his hand, "whoops!"

"Not again?!" Tigress rushed for it. Too late, the wolves' leader already grabbed it. Seeing no other way, she indirectly engaged him in a one on one combat.

The armored wolf kept on swirling the blades from side to side, leaving her no room to attack. It was a very defensive act, and she knew if her timing wasn't right, she would end up getting sliced. When the wolf swung the giant shuriken horizontally, she dodged and rolled behind him. From there, she managed to spot an opening.

Without hesitate, she quickly send a blow at it, "let's see how you like this!" but the wolf blocked it with his arm.

"Nice try," said the wolf. Little did he know, it was a fake attempt to catch him off guard.

Before he knew it, Tigress started giving him a series of quick jabs, which he soon lost track of the pattern and started receiving punches everywhere.

After a while, the feline stopped, "Not yet," and performed a somersault into the air, dropping her ankle on his head. This time, the wolf managed to block, but with the wrong hand instead. A cracking sound came, and both of them stopped at once. Feared of what he thought it might be, the wolf quickly scanned the sphere.

"What the heck!?"

Taking no chances, Tigress quickly swept him off his feet and catches the falling orb. She was shocked when the glass ball crushed in her hand.

"Huh?!" watching the broken pieces dropped to the ground one by one, "that ain't right."

Suddenly, a loud bang occurred at nearby forest, and everyone to gaze at the source of the sound. What they saw, was an ocelot came flying out of the tree walls and landed few meters away. Puzzled they did, when they see the same identical sphere dropped out from his hand.

The ocelot wasn't aware of their presence yet. He slowly got himself up, mumbling something about 'the hell was that," and then froze when he finally saw them. Simultaneously, their eyes changed from him to the sphere by then.

"Ow-kay," mumbled Tigress quietly, dropping the rest of the pieces as she scanned the perfectly retained glass ball.

"Get the sphere!" was an alarming call before the mob came charging towards the sphere.

"Oh boy," Zan hastily scrambled to his feet and picked the sphere in front of him. It was a crazed scene before Master Crane suddenly appeared behind him.

"Got it," the bird drilled himself into the crowd, separating all in a line. A good distraction he did, as Tigress and Viper soon reached beside him.

"Where did you get that?!" asked Tigress.

"From the cats."

"Great, we just got cheated," said Mantis, appearing out of nowhere.

"Where are they now?" Monkey threw a bamboo stick to Tigress, holding one by himself, "use this, it's better than nothing."

"Thanks."

"Back there," Zan pointed back at where he came from.

"Did I miss something?" asked Crane as he slowly landed beside them, scanning the sphere inside the ocelot's palm.

"Incoming," muttered Mantis, and the gang quickly protected Zan in the middle as the Wu Sisters arrived. They stopped by the tree tops, watching the scene with amusement.

"You cheated us!" shouted the wolf leader when he sees them, "over a damn slippery glass ball!"

"Ooow… we are terribly sorry," said one of the cats in a teasing tone, "come again." The three sisters laughed for the first time, which was awfully high pitched.

"Yep," Zan picked his right ear, "they haven't changed a bit."

"Where is Po," Viper asked.

"Errr…. Well," Zan scratched his head, looking back at the forest, "I think he is still on his way here."

"What?!" barked Tigress, with some distrust in it.

"Give us the sphere!" demanded the wolf leader. As a reaction of 'no', Zan quickly held it closer. Soon, his minions followed.

"Hand over it!"

"This is a last warning! Warriors or not!"

"Come on!"

"Giving Zenny would be fine enough to us," said the cats on the trees.

Tension started to build as the mob continued to shout and taunt. The warriors stood closer little by little, back to back, only to keep their guard on full alert. Little they know, Zan was getting squeezed in the middle.

"Do you know what this means?" asked Monkey, holding his bamboo staff below his chin.

"Pure-awesomeness," said Mantis with a grin.

Crane frowned, "I was thinking about saying '2 against us'."

"Then I will say 'Great'," whispered Tigress ironically.

**CHAPTER END

* * *

**

Phew! damn, that's long... I don't think I wanna make something like that again, hard to maintain the quality. Hope you still enjoy the action sequence. If not too much to ask for, PLEASE REVIEW!

The next chapter was intended to be something like 3 ways fighting, you know... The warriors vs Cats vs Wolves... So, its a big one and its coming to an end.


	6. Tropic Forest

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda, that's it.

Twilight Hour is waiting for beta read, so its currently under a halt.

Thanks for the reviews people, I think I should have mentioned it earlier (damn), its happy to know I got supports. I had problem catching back my writing style after I tried so many. *sigh*

* * *

**Chapter 6  
**

Of all the odd moment to come, some of the foes started equipping themselves with twin tiger hooks. They definitely had their eyes on the five. Oh yes. Within their circle stood none other than Zan, the one who has their most valued object - Sphere of Destruction.

The Wu Sisters, up on the trees were keeping themselves away, but they aren't waiting for trouble, they were going to make one.

Monkey was the first to see a dagger being threw at them. Without sparing any time to yell, he simply shoved Tigress aside. The dagger flew past her head, and passed Crane's skinny legs.

"Woah! Excuse you!" Zan screamed when the blade plunged itself between his feet. Unknowingly activated the sphere through his disoriented concentration, an invisible force was formed on his free hand.

When Zan noticed the ghastly figure on his hand, he shrieked and swung his arm up and down repeatedly. "Get it off! Get it off!"

"Whoa… Jeezzz Take it easy!" said Crane when Zan almost hit him. The energy orb was accidentally released in the process, and the outer barrier crippled, blasting everyone away with a ring of shockwave. The cats laughed hysterically when they saw the whole scene.

The gang was scattered on the wolves, immediately greeted by claws and hooks. Monkey merely pierced by a claw, but he managed to twist his body, to let it pass. Tigress quickly regained her balance in the air, and slipped her way swiftly through their attacks. Crane, however was unlucky. His light weighted body simply had him thrown straight into the crowd. Even though the claws missed him, his hat wasn't so fortunate.

The ocelot landed flatly on his four, with the sphere still tightly gripped in his hand. He rolled aside when a few hooks came at him. Within a moment, the viper heroically fended for him.

"What are you trying!?" Tigress barked, hitting the wolves around with her bamboo stick. "Get us killed?"

"Excuse me, m'lady, but I would be glad if you either _teach_ me or _take_ it!" Zan replied. The five started to fight their way around him again.

"Oh oh, let me try! Let me try!" Mantis hastily grabbed the relic. He examined the sphere quietly for a moment, then gave it a few pokes here and there.

"Well?" Tigress gave her enemies a sweeping kick, knocking out several foes at once.

"Okay okay … The cat did this right?" Mantis swung his hand around as if he was throwing something. But nothing came out.

"Try again." Zan crouched over a hook attack. His eye twitched when he saw the insect swinging his arms vigorously, as if he was doing a speed run over Tai Chi. "What are you doing?"

The bug ignored him, continued swinging until he became dizzy and lost his own balance. The end of his hook poked the ground, and next thing he knew, the soil pumped out beneath him, launching him high up into the sky.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrggghhhh!!"

The whole scene paused, watching the small bug disappeared into the thick canopy.

"That was shocking," Crane muttered.

"Entertaining, don't forget entertaining," said Zan, smirking.

Soon the sphere fell out from the sky. To their disappointment, it landed at the middle of the wolves.

"Give that sphere to me!" commanded their leader instantly, but his minions only juggled the relic at the tip of their grips.

"Just go for it!" Tigress gave Viper a boost into the air, then charged into the foes by herself. Crane drilled himself in, while Monkey cleared his way with a bamboo stick.

Viper started swiping away her enemies the moment she made her landing. Aiming at their feet, she dismounted them one by one quickly from the ground. However, the sphere was grabbed before she could. She hurried over to disable the taker, but it was already thrown to another wolf.

"That one, that one!" Monkey pinpointed somewhere at the crowd. There were hundreds of them, and they couldn't make the different.

"On it." Tigress swept her way across. Without knowing, she already hit the bearer. The sphere was thrown over their heads, then back into the crowd again, disappeared among the feet.

"This is hard," said Crane. His eyes kept following the sphere, but it was kicked here and there like a pin ball, until he almost faint by watching it.

The Wu Sisters made their moves, leaping from tree to trees just to get closer to the event. One of them quickly dropped down and mixed herself within the wolves, without her hat. Its simple, but no one noticed her difference.

When one of the wolves finally has the relic, she knocked him out, took the sphere and blended herself back into the crowd.

"Get her!" shouted the leader, but having problem spotting her. "She _is_ among us! Find her!"

Everyone was busy chasing over a glass ball. Zan was left outside. To say the least, he was amused by their determination.

"Hmmmm…." he started. "Since I had no value than a magical ball, I think I will go now."

Just after he made his turn, one of the Wu Sisters landed in front of him. "And I thought I was about to leave in one piece."

"Hello, Lei." He raised an eyebrow, alarmed when his family name was mentioned. Out of the three, there is only one that used to call him that, and that would be…

_Yue Xing…_

The cat swiftly threw away her hidings, revealing her thin leather armor with vertical stripes (she also wore a black pant like his).

"Wow." Zan's eyes widened. "On a diet or something?" Nevertheless, she has a slick and seducing body.

"You _should_ have told me _first_!" the cat hissed, pulling out five kunai between her fingers.

"Then what, with you stopping me?" Zan started backing off as the cat approached him. "You won't understand."

Xing frowned. "At least I don't have to be so worried about your." She took a deep breath. "Sudden disappearance."

"Ooww… I am so touched." Zan made a sad look, putting his hand on his chest. He quickly ducked over a shot of kunai, then dodged the rest of the four in a series of weird postures. "Woah!... Aye! …. Hoo! ... Hargh!"

The cat burst out with laughter. "You never ceased to amuse me."

"Really? And I thought I was weird."

Xing smirked, taking out two more packs of kunai with both hands. "When I done with you, you _better_ be _alive_." Arms spreading out with blades that resembled wing feathers, the cat charged at him.

"Not in the face!" Zan pulled back from a claw strike, clumsily dodged a few slashes, before losing at the kick that aimed below his jaw. "Urgm!"

The ocelot slumped hard on his back, but quickly rolled aside from an ankle drop. He tried to scramble on his feet, but the sister locked part of his pant to the ground, fixing it still with her kunai. He hit the floor again on his four, almost kissed the soil.

"Nice shot." He turned and plugged the blade, then rolled off when she threw three more at him.

What they currently doing doesn't seemed to draw any attention. From time to time, he would see a wolf flying across the background, with a pack of shadows throwing themselves over a glass ball. Then scattered when five distinctive figures charged into them.

The cat continued to charge at him, picking back her weapons along the way. This time, he was prepared. When Xing thrust her spikes at him, he swiftly turned and catches her arm, then twisted it lightly to make her kneeled. But the cat tail-swiped one of his feet, causing him to lose his own balance and the grip. While he staggered, the sister quickly get back on. She leaped into the air without a pause, rapidly kicked at him. Zan managed to block, but the last one was a heavy stomp that sent him back to the ground. He was dizzed and couldn't focus his view. But her battle cry brought him back. Expeditiously pushed aside a punch before his face, he swiped her off and rolled away.

"Man, I never win." Zan slowly stood up, but keeping a low posture.

Xing huffed as her respond. But deep within her, she was worried. Isolating himself for such a long time, what was changed in him? He probably just lost everything he learnt... from her.

"What did you do for the last few months?" asked Xing.

"What makes you want to know?"

One of her eyes twitched. _At least he's still as hard headed as before._

She let herself out a deep sigh, relaxing her muscle and stood up straight.

_What's so special about him anyway?_ She frowned at Zan, but received an innocent-baby-stare that caused her to burst out with laughter.

_I hate it when I did that._ Thought Zan.

Suddenly, the Sphere of Destruction flew across. Both of them slowly watched the sphere passed by. Their eyes met somewhere at the middle.

"Coming through!" interrupted Monkey as he ran passed them, followed by Crane and a few more wolves. Soon after, they were completely overrun by mob that never paid attention to them.

* * *

*

Monkey caught the sphere first, but had a claw swung in front of his face.

"It's ours!" hissed a Wu Sister.

"Not in your day." Crane dropped between them and drew out a fight with her.

Monkey hastily climbed onto a tree when the mob caught up with him. He had to swing himself onto another when they threw shurikens at him, then onto another when a larger one came, slicing off the branches.

While he was busy dodging over flying shurikens, the sphere activated itself through his nervous emotion. Trees around were inevitably sucked towards him, and within seconds, he was trapped.

"Huh, what's going on!?" He barely moved, but had the sphere locked outside the snare.

The third Wu Sister popped out in front of him, and gracefully snatched the sphere. "Ha-ha, easily done."

"Think again." Down below, Tigress threw a crushing blow at the tree trunk, bursting it completely. The cat almost lost her balance over the tremor, but she managed to leap off before the tree started to go down.

Mantis reached over Monkey a second later. "This is where slice and dice comes in," said the bug. Using his hooks he chopped the branches like a professional cook, then scrambled off with Monkey when he is done cutting.

Tigress evilly smirked as she quietly timed the falling tree at the cat. When its tip pointed at her target, she thrust the end with her palms, propelling the tree straight ahead. With succession, the tree fully consumed the feline ninja under its leafs.

"Lesson number 9: always try to use your environment against your opponent," said Tigress as she watched the tree flew off the distance, with a scream that slowly faded away.

The sphere was dropped, and Crane caught it."Yes!"

Once Tigress gave the signal, the Furious Five quickly regrouped. The avian wanted to pass the ball to Mantis, but Mantis declined, saying "No thanks, I had enough for one flight." The others laughed.

"Where is that panda?" asked Tigress. "I never seen him the moment we start the match."

"Beats me. Don't worry, he _is _a Dragon Warrior."

"Hey, where is Zan?" Viper asked. They all gasped. Guess people tend to neglect something when they are busy.

"It seems that we need to use _him_ after all," muttered the clan leader, scanning the five. "I will still have that sphere!"

"Bring out the Berserker!"

Upon his command, a large figure was brought out, stomping the ground with its legs. It let out a fearsome roar that scared his tiny teammates. It was chained, and is struggling for freedom. Five prison keepers tried to pull it down to its knees, but one of them was thrown off.

"Get some hands over it!" their leader demanded. Some of the minions started lunging themselves over the lose chain. They had a problem catching it because it twirled around and around the soil, but when they did, they pulled it further to restrain the giant.

"Urhh…" Mantis startled. "We got a situation here."

Tigress took a few steps forward, narrowing her eyes to focus on the creature. It was definitely covered in thick metal armor, reflecting some of the lights through its massive torso. Visible, his body was also overwhelmed with spikes, and in fact, each was coated with poison over the tip.

When called, two enormous axes were carried over, with each by three persons. They were slowly laid in front of the beast.

"I don't like the look of that," said Mantis. "Do we have any weapons with us?"

They scanned themselves. Apparently, the answer was quite simple.

"No."

Far off the distance, the clan leader mumbled something towards the beast. It didn't bother looked at him, but his ears twitched to show it's attention. Their conversation stayed unclear, until the giant abruptly turned it's head towards them.

"I think it is looking at us," whispered Crane, flapped his wings lightly.

They saw the leader raised a signal, and the chains were cut loose.

**Chapter End

* * *

  
**

Sorry for the cliffhanger, the original one is too long. It will update soon. There was this problem that I had with describing things that happened so many at once. I "researched" many writing styles, but ended up losing a stable one. Oh well, I tried.


	7. Storm in the Forest

Disclaimer: I still don't own Kung Fu Panda even though I got to Chapter 7

* * *

**Chapter 7: Storm in the Forest**

Po was getting tired of running around in the woods. He had no idea where he was going, and no idea of where he definitely is now. Those damned cats sure know how to run. He lost sign of them when he made a single trip. It was then to his surprise that Zan just ran passed him.

"Hey big Po," greeted the ocelot and hide behind him. "Do me a favor please, protect me from this mad woman!" He pointed at his chaser.

"Excuse me!?" the Wu Sister yelled, not hesitate to throw her daggers at the boys. Both of them managed to dodge all, but more like dancing their way through."Gnahh! Chill!"

The feline gave a deep sigh, slowly pulled out two ring blades.

"Look, I prefer we do this the soft way." Zan waved his hands around.

"The sister only prefers the hard way," the female replied, spinning her weapons loosely with her hands. "Definitely not with an outsider around."

"Right, get ready to feel the THUN-DA!" Po punched his hands blindly in the air, pumping himself up for a combat.

Their further conversation was interrupted when screams echoed the woods. "What was that?"

They paused a while to scan the surrounding. They had their answers when they saw the Furious Five came running all the way towards them.

"Giant wolf incoming!" Mantis shouted.

"Whaa?"

Far into the woods, came a giant beast, swinging its enormous axes madly around itself. Any tree that gets in its way was chopped down with a single slash. And without a doubt, it was charging its way towards them.

"Run for your life!" The three of them started to run with the five, but was caught up sooner than expected. Po had to duck his head from a swing of the axe. Zan clumsily leap over a cut, nearly bumped onto Crane, but he hang on his skinny legs to keep himself floated from another swing.

The beast was triple the size of Po, but more muscular. His greenish spikes swung along with its massive body, and the gang had to avoid it at all cost.

He was untouchable. Every swing he made the gang had to split up more and more, reluctantly circled the beast between them. It is performing an all out attack. They continued to move along the forest while they dodged the swings. Trees were cut down one by one, adding more obstacles for them to dodge.

"Crane!" called Tigress, back flipping over a cut around her waist. "Use the sphere on him!"

The bird flew off into the air, examining it as he turned it around between his legs. Wolves started jumping towards him from the trees, making him more difficult to concentrate.

"How do you use this thing?" Without knowing it, Crane already used its power: by constantly flapping his wings, he was sending wave and wave of gust down at them. It didn't affect the monster, but it is affecting his light weighted friends.

The sand started to lift off, blinding their eyes. Monkey lost his balance over the gust, and hit by the butt of an axe, slamming onto a tree. Things get scarier when axe can came out unexpectedly through the wall of dust.

"Crane, STOP flapping!"

"Whoops." Crane obeyed, but soon found himself falling. He was plunged by a pack of wolves on his drop, releasing the sphere in the process. The wolf leader caught it down below.

"Finally!" the armored wolf shouted, lifting the relic high in the air. "The Sphere of Destruction is MINE!"

Yet before he finished cheering, a kunai came knocking out the sphere from his grasp. "Argh!"

Zan leaped out to catch the relic. "Girl, you gotta teach me how to throw like that!"

Instead, he received a distrusting look from Xing. "Or maybe not."

The cat pulled him down to his knee before a large shuriken flew over his head, jamming itself on a nearby tree.

"Calm, calm, inner peace, inner peace," mumbled Zan when he realized the sphere started glowing. From what he can come out with, the sphere easily reacted to emotion, especially strong and overwhelming head rush. Thus to keep it still, he just need to control his feeling.

"I am a buzzling bee." Closing his eye, he held the orb loosely in his palm, started mimicking the sound of a flying bee. "Bzzz.. Bzzz…"

Xing stood next to him, "Had this little mountain cat finished goofing off?"

"You know how to use it, you tell me, missy."

"Zan!" called Po. "A little help here!?"

He and the Furious Five were still dodging their way off the creature. They tended to defeat it by themselves of course, but they had no opportunity of attack at all. To be exact, they found no points to land their attack. The wolf was effectively flawless in its defense, and the risk of getting closer was higher than staying away.

Zan was on his way, but Xing grabbed his arm. "Where does Mr. Lei think he's going?!"

"To _help_ someone?" replied him in a teasing gesture, strongly emphasis the word 'help'.

"I will have that sphere!" shouted the alpha wolf from a distance. He was charging at them with his minions, but cut off by the rest of the Wu Sisters.

"No one harms Zenny," hissed the cats while they hold their ground between them.

"I will leave those black dudes to you." The ocelot gave Xing's shoulder a pat before running off.

"The sister is not done with you yet!" shouted the cat. But Zan only dismissed her with a wave of his arm.

* * *

*

Zan was having difficulty reactivating the sphere. His concentration was lost and his minds were rumbling among themselves. What could he possibly did to make it so lively back then?

_Nervous, shock and disoriented feeling?_

He was getting closer and closer to them, yet he was far from controlling the sphere. _Alright, alright. Focus the thoughts, getting yourself pumped. I was-_

"Argh!" he dropped on his back when a giant axe came. The sphere glowed again, and a weak energy illumination started forming at his hand. _This is it!_

He gave his arm a swing at the beast right before it started to drop an axe on him. Much to his delight, the energy ball slipped out like a distorted water balloon, smashing into the face of the beast with a loud boom. An enormous force swept him off the ground, and Zan crashed onto a tree; The beast was thrown off quite a distance. When he landed on its back, all the venom spikes scattered like broken needles.

That's it! The berserker is now fully vulnerable. The moment the beast stood up, the Furious Five started to overwhelm him with attacks. They kicked at his chin, gut, back, then his lower jaw to have him staggering backwards. Po finished it off with a discharged of Qi from his palms, sending him twirling through a series of trees…. The wolves' 'Ultimate Weapon' was defeated.

Zan was half rubbing his head when Po pulled him onto his feet. "Dude! That's soooo awesome!"

"Been there, done that."

Wu Sisters were still busy fending the wolves off, yet they were too much for them. Some of the wolves successfully broke their line, dashing towards him. When Xing looked at Zan, he took the opportunity to signal them, telling them to go off the way. And they followed, vanishing themselves within a smoke screen.

"Okay, so we are up for another round?" Po gave a few test punches in the air, positioning his stance along with other warriors.

"No." Zan stepped out. "I will take them."

He knew he had it, he control the sphere right now. Although it reluctantly obeyed him before, but from his last performance, he knew the rightful element to use it – emotion control.

Zan took a deep breath, and exhaled it to relax his mind. He started concentrating his energy around him, directing them to flow through his arm as he gracefully swung it around and around in a circle. It took him a few more tries to get it right, but eventually, he succeeded.

Air around him started to twist and turn, slowly forming an energy barrier that looked similar to the first, although thicker and more refined.

"That's soooo awesome!" Po baby cheered beside him, while the others watched with amusement.

"Not yet." He pointed the energy ball at the thousand foes in front of him. Then concentrated his energy more, pressing the invisible orb smaller and smaller. Within a few seconds, the orb reached its limit, started emitting a loud screeching noise that longed for eternity.

It was so loud that the rest had to cover their ears. "Oww man, it's still awesome!"

"And noisy!" Tigress had to shout to overcome the screeching sound.

The wolves were no longer heading towards them. Instead, they started backing away as fear gripped them.

"Off you go buddy." Zan yanked his other arm hard on the energy ball, as if he was punching it; the fist and the orb collided with a loud sonic boom, thrusting the concentrated energy forward.

The orb gained its size as it sucked in large amount of air, creating vortexes upon its wake. Leafs and dusts were drawn in to formed a horizontal tornado as its tail. The wolves definitely ran for their lives, but the air slowly consumed them… one after another. Everything came twirling around it… _Everything_.

"Aaaaaawesome," Po dragged. "Wind element rules!"

"Not yet." Zan had his five fingers spread wide, seemed to control the orb from here.

Further amazed, the rest were now speechless.

"Watch this," the ocelot grinned. Then abruptly clenched his fingers altogether, as if squeezing something out of the air. _"Boom." _

* * *

*

It was sun set, and Shifu was taking a walk along the stairs when his students reached home. He thought he saw an unusual clearance in the woods, since the Jade Palace was located high in the mountain, but he simply dismissed it as a natural phenomenon.

One of Shifu's eyes twitched, "The whole south forest was gone?!"

"Ye-ep. All 50 acres of them," Po explained with a fainting smile, the fur around his head was spiky.

"Big bang style. You should've totally seen it! It was like… AMAZING! Everything gone swooshing around and around, then came to a point where Zan said 'watch this', and then squeezed his fist, and then Booooooom! The wind came sweeping us away like a wall! It was TOTALLY AWESOME!"

His master only replied him with a simple disapproving gesture. Then bend around to check on the others. Sure enough, they looked like they had gone through quite a tornado ride. The avian, Master Tigress and Monkey had their fur fully thrown backwards, forming a layer of spikes at their rear.

"He is telling the truth, Master." Tigress crossed her arms.

"I'm with her."

"Seen it."

"No comment there."

"Agreed."

Shifu raised one of his eyebrows. "The sphere?"

"Oh yeah." Po hastily took out a leaf warped ball, reaping it open and out the sphere came. "Here it is, in one piece. Oops, be careful, it's reactive."

"Don't worry." Shifu received the sphere gently. "I had my first experience."

"Oooh?" Po widened his eyes, stretching his mouth into a smile. "How was it?"

"It's … …" Shifu coughed. "Let's not talk about it. Where is the ocelot?"

"Oh, him? Back to the wild."

"With the sister?"

"Nope."

"Alone," Crane added.

"Why?"

"Becauseee Errrrmmm… Don't know, he didn't explain much."

Shifu gave them another disbelieving look.

"Hey, and I thought I was weird," Po protested, tipping his new spiky hair, seemed to enjoy it.

There was a pause which the old master used to rearrange his memories.

Finally, he nodded in agreement. "I see. Well, it's been a long day."

"Yeah." Po scratched his back.

"Get inside, I've prepared some special dumplings for dinner." Shifu chuckled, leading his students back into the Jade Palace.

Much without his notice, Po exchanged a look with the Furious Five.

_Special Dumplings?! And they thought it was a joke._

**End of Chapter**

_

* * *

_Urmmm... Nah... Not THE END yet. One last chapter. R&R _  
_


	8. His side of the Story

Disclaimer: I still don't own Kung Fu Panda even though I had finished my story

This is the last chapter. It basically aimed to clear out the settings behind.

* * *

**His Side of the Story**

Zan was back to his village. As predicted, there was nobody there, only empty tree houses. After leaving his home for months, there wasn't much change being made. He still sees the kid's play ground, with the seesaws swinging lightly by the winds. He never got to play them. When he was young he never had any friend, usually shut himself up in his home. The old well was there too, where he usually came by to look at his reflection. It's all dried up now, since people chose over the river bank, thinking that it is cleaner after they planted some trees to trap the dirt.

He slowly climbed himself up the ladders, soon reaches the veranda, where people used to gather around for a special event. He remembered an old shaman giving the kids a frightening story: about a naughty boy slipping out for a walk, and taken by the boogie man. Hah! That really scared him for weeks. But it was their way of keeping the children safe in home.

He soon reached his own tree house. Man, it's a mess. He was leaving in a rush, since he had to keep up with the time he had with the patrol guards.

When he was admiring the view outside his house, he saw Po walking down below.

"Good morning," said him, loud enough to let the panda hear. "That's pretty early if you ask me." Po looked up at him.

"WELL, woke up when dad dropped the pot in the kitchen." Po smiled.

"Okay then, big guy, come on up!"

Po shrugged. "What!? You expect me to climb up there? Will it hold my weight?"

"Sure, why not? I remembered seeing a guy bigger than you here."

"Oookay." Po found a ladder, and slowly climbed himself up.

The wood creek and cracked when he walks, and Zan started to doubt the strength of the floor.

"Wooooow… It looked pretty AWESOME up here!" Po scanned around. The view was magnificent. From here he could see the green canopy below, and large mountains stretching across the horizon. The Valley of Peace was half visible too, along with the mountain where the Jade Palace stood. A river runs free in the woods, probably the river they found Zan. Everything was covered by the morning mist. The air was colder up here too, with a soft touch of moisture over his face.

"One of the reasons I set this meeting at the morning," said Zan, leaning against a tree.

Po nodded. "So… Should we start?"

"Wait for the girl."

"Oh okay." There was a long pause later, but Zan cut it short.

"I heard you quit from Jade Palace, true?"

"Yeah," replied Po. "But I was thinking about going back after this… You know… A lot of things came through my mind."

Zan nodded.

"So," said Po, resting his back over the safety bar made of wood. It creek, and he quickly pulled himself away. "Why you ran away?" Zan waited for a few moments before reply.

"Shifu want you to ask me that?"

"I stand half corrected," said Po, smiling as always. "Another half is my own curiosity. Arrrhhhh… Some sort of mystery and stuff you running from the cats so badly."

Zan sighed. "You know the wolves and cat were used to be a Clan right? I think they called it the Forest Thunder Clan or something."

"Uh-huh, legend has it they are the baddest ninja alive, no offense."

Zan smiled. "Together with other clan, wild boar, crocs, buffalos, gorillas, pigs, they are armies of Tai Lung. Well, not actually, b'cuz they volunteered themselves, saying 'We respect the most powerful!', or something similar. They conquered lands and properties for him, just to make him happy."

"I am not actually enjoying any bit of it, killing people and robbing stuff," added Zan as Po continued to stay quiet.

"So I decided to run away, since there is no such 'Hey, girls! You know what? I quit!' in the clan." Zan suddenly acting girlishly to pretend, and Po laughed. "Probably off with your head by then."

"What about the part where they catch you?" asked Po.

"Okay, so from there, days went on," continued Zan. "I started my new life catching fish, isolating anyone I see, to make sure they never find me again. Until one day, news of Tai Lung being defeated came over, and I am sure the Dragon Warrior had something to do with it."

He stared over Po.

"Yeah," said Po, tickling his fingers together and looked away. "No comment on that one."

"Then, things started to change rapidly," said Zan. "I knew it, b'cuz I started hearing news from passers, saying that the 'Evil Empire' was breaking up. Soon, the Wu Sisters started showing in the forest, searching for me."

"SO that's _when_ it started," said Po.

"The reason? Well, as you can see, this is it." Zan waved his arm, showing Po the emptied village. "They are moving away, just to relocate their hideout. So no one can ever find and harm them. Well, that's the original plan, it could change."

"Why aren't you going back?" said Po. "The Evil Empire is breaking up right?"

"I certainly did think of that," said Zan. "But since the cats are now forming by their own, they wanted a new leader, which they picked _me_."

"And you don't want it?" said Po.

"Pretty close," answered Zan. Po stretched his mouth wide, showing him a smile that annoyed him.

"What?"

"They liked you don't they?"

Zan raised his eyebrow.

"We grow up together since childhood. They, me, don't know why, ended up being friends," said Zan.

"And to think that I grew up, losing to a bunch of girls that used to play with me," said Zan and chuckled. "No flashy kung fu, martial arts, no skills, except good at running away every time I caught in a fight." He sighed. "Those girls saved my butt from bullies like… ten times."

"Dude," said Po, "don't take that too hard yeah? I mean I never knew Kung Fu until I learnt from Master Shifu. He is the greatest Kung Fu teacher all over the China, and I am sure you can learn some from him." Po smiled, but received a lazy look from Zan.

"I'll pass. I heard the training is killing people," said him, smiling.

Po scratched his head. "I guess you can say that."

"Oh, here comes the third member."

Down below, a Wu Sister walked by. She scanned the area for a moment, then she saw them when she looked up. Zan greeted her with a wave of his hand, but the sister frowned, rather disappointed to see Po standing next to him.

"Yeooooow!" called Zan lively. The cat quickly ran herself over a tree, climbed on it, then swing through its branch to get to them. It only took her 4 seconds. She was wearing the same black cloak, and her leather armor visible when the cloak flew by the winds. Apparently, she brought her ring blades along, as can be seen hanging at her back. Po took a few steps backward, started lifting his fists up. The cat stared at him expressionless, beginning to grab her blades.

"Look, like I said before," interrupted Zan and stood between them, looked into the cat's eyes. "This is a friendly meeting, NO fighting, okay?" The cat kept quiet for a moment, and nodded.

"Same goes with you Po," said Zan, turning at the panda. Po smiled back, relaxing his muscles.

"So you brought the things I told you to?" Zan looked over the cat. She looked at Po suspiciously for a few seconds, then back at him, nodded.

Po was puzzled, "What things?"

The cat pulled out a small leather pocket, slit it open. She gave it to Zan, in which he glanced over the inside and smiled. Po was definitely wanted to know. It revealed itself when Zan took it out, flashing goldenly between his fingers – a six edged, gold, star shuriken. Zan flexed his fingers, playing it.

"Check it out." Zan faced his palm upward, then twirled the star using his five fingers. Instead of dropping to his palm, the star spun itself freely in the air.

"Ho… How did you do that?" Po easily amazed. "That is soooo COOL!"

"This is what it famous for. Apparently, it reacted to Qi flow," said Zan. Po continued to stare at the spinning star.

"And… What, you are giving it to me?"

"Hmmmmm….. Sorry, not for you, it's for Master Shifu." Po frowned, but accepted the star when Zan dropped it into his palm. He started playing around with it, but the star spin unstably.

"The reason?"

"When I was in the Jade Palace, I saw missing pieces of Shanshu's weapon collection. Since we found it during our raid in a bandit village, I thought I should give it to you."

Po glanced over the Wu Sister, but she looked away. "Don't worry about her, its pretty useless to them, Zan smiled. "They can't use it."

He thought he saw the cat pinched Zan lightly on his arm, but not very sure since he was busying himself with the star.

"So errr…. That's it?"

"Not really, one more thing," said Zan as the cat handed him a rather old fashioned curved rock. "Here."

Po received the thing, and gave it a scan. It is a round shaped coin like object, with a detailed curving of a phoenix. "What will this does?"

"Nothing much, but make sure you give it to Shifu, okay?" Zan put his arm over the cat, pulling her closer.

"And I must warn you, don't think too much," added him when Po continued to examine the rock.

"Ooo-kay." There was a long pause later. Po kept on thinking how to continue, but there wasn't any.

"So, I'll … urmmm… See you around?" said Po. Zan looked at him quietly for a few seconds before reply.

"Yeah, sure… See you 'round."

When Po was gone, the cat stared at him. "Yes, Xing?"

She sighed, and purred in his arm. "You sure you're not going to come back?"

Zan nodded. "Yep, I'm planning to live a normal live in the village: meeting people and stuff. I guess there wasn't always a good person like _them_ but I want to try something new. Maybe will go back when I had enough of it." Xing glared at him.

"I got myself a house by selling fish I caught. Enough to start a new business too – it's a weapon business, and traps," said the ocelot, smirking. The Wu Sister kept quiet.

Finally, he sighed, handing her a piece of wood skin, with scribbles on it. "Here is my home address if you are interested."

Her eyes widened the moment he finished.

"Well?"

The cat snatched the paper, and yanked him hard on the floor, before walking off.

"See you after sunset."

"Yes m'am."

* * *

*

After Shifu received the star shuriken from Po, he spun it above his palm. "Hmmm… Indeed we had the fourth shuriken missing. Shanshu's set of collection always had four of them, along with two short blades for attack." He caught it within his fingers. "A well appreciated gratitude from the ocelot."

"Anything else you want to show me?" asked Shifu when he noticed Po was still under the daze of the play.

"Huh!? Oh, of course, this thing." Po took out the rock coin, and gave it too him. "Do you know what is it?"

Shifu was a bit shock when he had his first glance on the coin. He didn't reply, flipping it around and around to see it matched his details.

"Well?" asked Po again, getting impatient after seeing his reaction.

The red panda tried to say something, but instead his mouth hanged there, giving himself a deep thought.

"Anything?"

"What did the ocelot say when he gave it to you?" asked Shifu.

"Aye urrhh…. Something about 'I must warn you, don't think too much'," replied Po. His master only looked at him with surprise, then turned and coughed.

"Well?"

"You really wanted to know?" asked Shifu, Po can sense the tone started to wear out.

"Yeah, of course, I am DYING to know!"

"Okay." Shifu turned slowly to him. "What I am about to tell you I wish you can keep it between you and me."

"Urmmm… Okay," Po agreed. Instantly, the coin was thrust towards his face, almost kissing it with his snout.

"This is the Coin of Wisdom I've been searching for YEARS! It fits perfectly in my personal collections!"

_Dumb struck…_

"Yes!" The old mastered clenched his fist, acting like a five year old kid who just got his birthday present.

**THE END**


End file.
